• 13 Feb 2015

Energy World Corp Ltd expects to start generating 200 megawatts from its newly built LNG-fired power plant in the Philippines by the second quarter, its top official said, a key milestone in opening up the country's market to liquefied natural gas imports. Energy World plans to buy LNG from the spot market to run the power plant, the first such facility in the Southeast Asian nation that depends mainly on imported oil and coal for its energy needs. "What we're looking at is the first 200 megawatts by three months' time, and maybe two to three months later for the second 200 MW," Chief Executive Officer Stewart W. G. Elliott told Reuters in an interview at his office in the capital Manila on Wednesday. Energy World's original plan, based on Elliott's interview with Reuters in October, was to put on stream the initial 400 MW capacity by early 2015, but the chief executive sought to downplay the delay. "We're not working for an absolute deadline we don't have," he said. "We're trying to bring it (into operation) as early as possible and see if we can contribute to helping with the power crisis here." The 650-MW combined-cycle power plant is part of Energy World's $800-million Pagbilao LNG import and storage hub currently under construction in Quezon Province on the main Luzon island. In October, the Philippine government had asked the company to speed up commercial operations of the Pagbilao power plant to help avert brownouts on the Luzon island, Elliott told Reuters. There was no immediate reaction from the government on Energy World's new schedule for the start of commercial operations at the power plant. Two gas turbine units will generate the initial 400 MW capacity, while a third steam gas unit to be installed later will produce 250 MW, Elliot said. "We are creating a gas industry for the Philippines," he said. The company is looking to build up to 3,000 MW of LNG-based power capacity in the next few years in the Philippines, Elliot said. Energy World will sell power via the country's wholesale electricity spot market, where it will compete with dozens of suppliers including top producers Aboitiz Power Corp, First Gen Corp, and SMC Global Power Holdings Corp, a unit of conglomerate San Miguel Corp. The Philippines faces a possible power shortfall in Luzon this year which could directly hit more than half of the country's 100 million people, a revitalised manufacturing sector and booming industries such as tourism and call centres. Energy World, which is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange and operates the Sengkang LNG production plant in Indonesia, also plans to sell LNG to fuel households, and commercial and industrial users in the Philippines, in a bid to provide an alternative to liquefied petroleum gas, Elliott said.   Source: Reuters